The U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,415, issued Sept. 28, 1976, and assigned to the same assignee as the subject invention, discloses a power transmission member made from a thin-wall blank sleeve by a rolling operation. Such a power transmission member is utilized in a vehicle automatic transmission clutch as a clutch hub. The clutch hub has a thin-walled annular sleeve portion wherein the clutch hub splines are formed.
The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,415 discloses a method and machine for splining a power transmission member by rolling, as well as the resultant splined member. An externally toothed pinion type mandrel of the machine is rotatably mounted between elongated die racks. An unsplined member is supported by the mandrel so that sliding movement of the elongated dies from an initial end-to-end relationship to an overlapping relationship meshes teeth on the dies and teeth on the mandrel with a thin-walled annular sleeve portion of the member therebetween. The meshing of the die and mandrel teeth deforms the sleeve portion of the member radially in a rolling manner, forming splines as the mandrel rotates.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,836, issued Jul. 7, 1987 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention discloses an apparatus for simultaneously flanging and splining the thin-walled blank to make a splined and flanged power transmission member. A toothed mandrel is rotatably supported between a pair of toothed dies. The dies and mandrel have chamfered surfaces for forming a flange on the thin-walled member as the tooth surfaces of the dies and mandrel are relatively moved during a spline operation.
In use in a transmission assembly, sleeves of the type described above are axially moved in relationship to a splined gear member to be received thereover for meshing engagement between the splines on the sleeve and the teeth on the gear. It is known in the art to form notches in at least some of the splines, the notches functioning as stops which limit the axial movement of the splines in meshing relationship with the teeth of the gear. The notches are generally preformed in a separate punching operation after the splines are formed in the thin-walled blank sleeve. A thin-walled blank sleeve is moved to a second operation site where a single punch moves radially relative to the central axis of the sleeve to form notches in individual splines. Each notch is formed by the puncturing portion of the punch stretching and cutting the metal pressed by the radially moving punch.
The present invention provides a more efficient and less expensive means of forming notches in the splines of a power transmission sleeve member. This is accomplished by the present invention not requiring a two step spline forming and punching process but rather a single step simultaneous forming of splines and notches.